And I finally get around to continuing on with the break it down series. The others can be found at the following location.

This one will specifically talk about the goaltending situation, and what a clusterfuck it is. Our starting goalie, one might say our “MVP”, is a drunk felon (not to mention injury prone and not very good outside of contract years), we have two goalies who are young (JDD I think showed that he needs more seasoning in the A, DD didn’t get a big enough showcase in my opinion) and we have Gerber.

The sad thing is I personally think that Gerber is the best goalie we have right now. Certainly on the best contract of the bunch.

Here is the goalie situation as I see it to start the season:

NHL
—-
Khabibulin (65% of starts)
Dubnyk (35% of starts)

AHL
—-
Deslaurier (50%)
Gerber (50%)

And this is what I see at the end of the season:

NHL
—-
Gerber (70%)
Dubnyk (30%)

AHL
—-
Deslaurier (75%)
Pitton? (25%)

Injury Reserve
—-
Khabibulin (100%)

Even if Khabibulin doesn’t get injured, I’d be willing to bet that Gerber starts by the end of the season.

Strengths

I’m not sure we have any strengths. One could argue that we have 4 goalies, but I would respond with the fact that I’m not sure any of them are NHL caliber goalies.

Dubnyk I think can be something in the future, and we do have Roy coming off of a strong year and with national team invites.

Weaknesses

Young/Old. We have two goalies who we all know can’t hack it at the NHL level. Can they in a few years…maybe. But last year wasn’t all that shit hot. The other two are older, and obviously past their primes. Injuries will be a problem with them, and would any large amount of ice time (we are not going to see Brodeur type number of games played from them).

Could Use

An NHL goalie, you know, one of those players that there are tonnes of right now available for really cheap to any team.

Finally

I know that this post seems really pessimistic, and shit, it really is. This is the biggest problem on our entire team and it kills me to see the management group call the drunk our MVP. Makes me think that they really have no fucking clue about what they are doing (although to be fair I’m pretty happy about this off-season).

That said, I’m pretty happy about the backup situation. All of Gerber, JDD and DD can be good backups. All at decent prices. That Gerber contract, while flooring me initially has me thinking its better and better the more I think about it. JDD will be good for OKC and Dubnyk deserves his shot at showing he can do it in the show.

Not a fan of Khabibulin. Not at signing, not before and definitely not now.

Like this:

27 Responses to “Break it Down! – Goaltending (2010/11 Edition)”

I think the one good thing about our goaltending is it should be pretty superb… in Oklahoma.

At the NHL level, perhaps scary. Although I too hope that we see Gerber at the NHL level. Hell, I even still have faith in the Bourbon wall, if he’s healthy and not in the klinker. It’s just I don’t have faith that he’ll be healthy or not in the klinker 😉 I don’t think he’s spectacular, but he’s at a good enough level where he could hold the fort, if the other question marks (health/jail time) are not an issue.

When you look back at our original 3 headed goalie monster(Roli, Garon, JDD)we had to keep JDD with the big club or risk losing him on waivers. I was never convinced that he’d get snagged immediately after being placed on waivers but they decided to move Garon and I wasn’t thrilled with the return we got for him. In a way it would have been nice to have Roli and Garon split play that season and if Roli wouldn’t agree to a 1 year deal, ink Garon to a new deal and then have Dubnyk and JDD battle for the backup role. We could have avoided the Khabi contract altogether.

Mr.Majestyk: When you look back at our original 3 headed goalie monster(Roli, Garon, JDD)we had to keep JDD with the big club or risk losing him on waivers. I was never convinced that he’d get snagged immediately after being placed on waivers but they decided to move Garon and I wasn’t thrilled with the return we got for him. In a way it would have been nice to have Roli and Garon split play that season and if Roli wouldn’t agree to a 1 year deal, ink Garon to a new deal and then have Dubnyk and JDD battle for the backup role. We could have avoided the Khabi contract altogether.

I’ll eat lots of crow on this gladly. Looking back on all of this, they should have just said yes to Roli knowing that the other two guys were what they wanted to develop and Roli seemed glad to help do that. Hindsight’s 20/20, but you called this one correctly from the get go.

On Garon being traded for fear of losing JDD; MM, I completely agree with you. I never thought there was any legitimate fear to losing JDD by sending him to the farm. It seems pretty clear now even that this is not an issue, at least I don’t think it is.

chucker: I’ll eat lots of crow on this gladly. Looking back on all of this, they should have just said yes to Roli knowing that the other two guys were what they wanted to develop and Roli seemed glad to help do that. Hindsight’s 20/20, but you called this one correctly from the get go.On Garon being traded for fear of losing JDD; MM, I completely agree with you. I never thought there was any legitimate fear to losing JDD by sending him to the farm. It seems pretty clear now even that this is not an issue, at least I don’t think it is.

If crow’s anything like pigeon it tastes like chicken!

I may have called it correctly but I wish more they had proved me wrong. I’m just hoping all this off-ice stuff motivates Khabi to be at his absolute best this season to justify his contract, but I don’t have a whole lot of faith in that happening.

As far as Garon was concerned, I think MacT had lost faith in him anyway so not sure it would have mattered – he was going to ride Roli all the way once he made his decision.

LateNightOilFan: If crow’s anything like pigeon it tastes like chicken! I may have called it correctly but I wish more they had proved me wrong. I’m just hoping all this off-ice stuff motivates Khabi to be at his absolute best this season to justify his contract, but I don’t have a whole lot of faith in that happening. As far as Garon was concerned, I think MacT had lost faith in him anyway so not sure it would have mattered – he was going to ride Roli all the way once he made his decision.

Yeah, that seemed evident at the time. MacT trusted Roli more with his job up in the air, plus the whole coaching fiasco with Garon.

I too hope Khabbi plays lights out this year, but I’m not going to bet on it.

I always liked Garon and thought he was a bit misused here. I always just thought he was the type that needed more momentum to get his game going, meaning more starts. Oh well… that’s the past now.

As for Khabi, I was in support of signing him (not as our first choice, mind you), but again when the deal was made, I instantly vomited a bit in my mouth and had said then that we should have kept Roli. But salary/term. But hey, it is what it is.

Racki: I always liked Garon and thought he was a bit misused here. I always just thought he was the type that needed more momentum to get his game going, meaning more starts. Oh well… that’s the past now.As for Khabi, I was in support of signing him (not as our first choice, mind you), but again when the deal was made, I instantly vomited a bit in my mouth and had said then that we should have kept Roli. But salary/term. But hey, it is what it is.

I liked Garon but he has never seemed to possess the consitency needed to be a #1 guy. That being said he put on one of the most oustanding goaltending displays against the Sharks when he was with us I have ever seen. He literaly took that whole team on by himself and beat them!
Khabby is a guy I have NEVER liked other than his stint with the Bolts. That contract with the Hawks saddled them like an old mule IMO. Sadly now we are the mule. That contract just just puts a huge thorn under the saddle.
What bothers me most about this guy is a gut feeling he is not a team guy. It’s Khabby 1st and the rest of the guys line up behind him.
It’s what I liked about Rolli. There was never any doubt about his dedication to the team.
The OIlers made a huge mistake not keeping him IMO. BUt whats done is done. Tambi is going to have to live with Khabby for better or for wrose and frankly it is his biggest mistake so far. Tambi calling Khabby our MVP smells of butt covering big time.
When you look back at our goaltending situation the Oilers have not handled things well for along time really and it has hurt them. We still aren’t dong a very good job of it frankly which is sad. It is the #1 postion on the team if you want to have success which is why I am aproaching the up coming season with very heavily guarded optimism. We don’t have proven #1 tender or a solid #1 center. Both this deficits are going to hurt us IMO.

Agree vic on all 3 evaluations, although I remember it being Roli that was the Shark killer. But Garon did have a 3-2 win against them in 07/08 so that must be what you are referring to.

It’s done with, I think the Oilers made the right decision going with Roli in 08/09 but unless it’s proven otherwise this season, I think they should have given him his 2 years afterwards. However, with that said, if they had we likely wouldn’t have secured Hall.

LateNightOilFan: Agree vic on all 3 evaluations, although I remember it being Roli that was the Shark killer. But Garon did have a 3-2 win against them in 07/08 so that must be what you are referring to.It’s done with, I think the Oilers made the right decision going with Roli in 08/09 but unless it’s proven otherwise this season, I think they should have given him his 2 years afterwards. However, with that said, if they had we likely wouldn’t have secured Hall.

Still its sad that we’re still in the goalie monster situation, and not only that but we’re not exactly paying Dubnyk and JDD base pay. Someone at Lowetide pointed out that the Oilers are paying Khabi, JDD, Dubnyk, Gerber 6 million, while the Sharks have Niemi and Niitymaki for 4 million.

Its like they aren’t sure who will emerge as the better goaltender between Dubnyk and JDD, and are afraid they will make the wrong decision, so they just keep them both around. It makes it seem like they don’t know what they’re doing.

LNOF: Yep, Roli absolutely dominated the Sharks. One game he faced something like 50+ shots if I recall and didn’t really let many in. Roli was the Shark killer.

I think Garon was prone to some nights off. I thought Roli was too though. My analysis of them is they were kind of opposites in a way (lol, no not in skill level). Garon seemed to be a guy you had to give a lot of games to get him momentum, and when he got it, he’d be on fire.. but perhaps too short lived. Roli was a guy you could put in cold, and he’d be a beast.. but if you left him in for too many games, he’d cool off (playoff run aside). One would think that would make Roli the ultimate backup, with that description, but I just think he just needed a few nights off here and there and would have been fine. More than we gave him sometimes though!

Mr.Majestyk: Still its sad that we’re still in the goalie monster situation, and not only that but we’re not exactly paying Dubnyk and JDD base pay. Someone at Lowetide pointed out that the Oilers are paying Khabi, JDD, Dubnyk, Gerber 6 million, while the Sharks have Niemi and Niitymaki for 4 million.Its like they aren’t sure who will emerge as the better goaltender between Dubnyk and JDD, and are afraid they will make the wrong decision, so they just keep them both around. It makes it seem like they don’t know what they’re doing.

You can’t help but feel this all could have been avoided if we’d had our own farm team for the last five years or more. We could have played both of these guys in the AHL, when they are supposed to play there, and develop them properly. It all falls on management to me.

This is the reason I’m very pleased we now have the Barons. At least now we can properly develop prospects, which I’d say was our weakness for many years.

Now, because of age and number of years pro etc, both these guys are making way too much fo how far along the curve they are. That’s all development, or lack thereof.

Mr.Majestyk: Still its sad that we’re still in the goalie monster situation, and not only that but we’re not exactly paying Dubnyk and JDD base pay.Someone at Lowetide pointed out that the Oilers are paying Khabi, JDD, Dubnyk, Gerber 6 million, while the Sharks have Niemi and Niitymaki for 4 million.Its like they aren’t sure who will emerge as the better goaltender between Dubnyk and JDD, and are afraid they will make the wrong decision, so they just keep them both around.It makes it seem like they don’t know what they’re doing.

Two of these guys (Gerber, Dubnyk and JDD) will be headed to the AHL though, and the Oilers have made it known they’re willing to overspend for the farm team. However, you’d think they could have just signed another Gerber-like career AHLer.. duh. They aren’t the swiftest bunch there. Perhaps they’re hoping that JDD or Dubnyk spending some AHL time will turn them into better goaltenders though.

I think that we are seeing less of an impact of an amazing goalie as of late. This is why they are so not in-demand, and very few teams will ever lock yp as big a salary hit now as they have in the past. We don’t need any of our potential goalies to be a shut-out machine, we just need to get our total goals allowed down by about 50 and our goals scored up by about 30.

That is achievable, but our defense is going to have to play well and play to the goalies style better.

LateNightOilFan: Agree vic on all 3 evaluations, although I remember it being Roli that was the Shark killer. But Garon did have a 3-2 win against them in 07/08 so that must be what you are referring to.It’s done with, I think the Oilers made the right decision going with Roli in 08/09 but unless it’s proven otherwise this season, I think they should have given him his 2 years afterwards. However, with that said, if they had we likely wouldn’t have secured Hall.

LOL, no problem, although I still don’t remember the Oilers being dominated in that particular game and Garon stealing it as much as I remember Jiggy being pretty sub-par. It was a long time ago though so I’ll take your word for it, as I know Garon definitely stole wins that season!

So is Khabby coming to camp? Seems he has to pass the physical/ conditioning evaluation if he does. Is this guy in shape?? Thats the $64
question in my mind.
Sitting in court isn’t like going to the gym lol. And then we have his mental state.

victoriaoilerfan: So is Khabby coming to camp? Seems he has to pass the physical/ conditioning evaluation if he does. Is this guy in shape?? Thats the $64question in my mind.Sitting in court isn’t like going to the gym lol. And then we have his mental state.

I’m betting he’s there. I am curious about his back though. There’s been no news or updates at all on it. It kind of makes you wonder how good it is because you know the Oilers would be singing it from the rooftops if it was good. But then again, this whole drunk driving situation has had the organization very quiet about anything Khabbi.

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